“If you start crying, you’ll make me cry, Mom,” Gemma chides.
“You are glowing.” She crosses the room, wrapping Gemma in a hug.
“Nothing else you want to tell us there, Gem?” Ivy says on a laugh.
“Don’t go starting any rumors!”
“Sometimes rumors can be true…”
“Ivy, I’m not pregnant.”
She shrugs a shoulder. “I know Willow wants a cousin here.”
“And a baby brother!” she pipes up. “I want one of them too!”
Ivy’s eyes grow wide. “Keep dreaming, Willow.”
“I hate to interrupt this…” Mom trails off, “but everyone is waiting. Are you ready?”
“I’m ready.”
Gemma and Mom link their arms together, and we all head out of the lodge. Lights hang from the trees, looking like fairies. Flowers line the path leading to where the ceremony is being held.
It’s magical.
Ivy and Willow walk ahead of me as the voices of the crowd start to become louder. I see Dad waiting for Gemma and Mom, then my gaze locks on to the one person I’d rather not see.
Simon is standing in the back. Wearing all-black, he looks sexier than I’ve ever seen.
What the hell have I done?
His eyes track me as I turn to walk down the aisle. Gramps, Blake, and my brothers are waiting under the archway that Mason built for the wedding.
Every thought should be focused on my sister and Blake, but my mind keeps drifting to Simon. To the man I turned away.
Gramps gives me a smile as I take my place. With the music starting, all eyes are on Gemma.
Except mine. Mine are on the groom. Because tears leak out of Blake’s eyes as Gemma gets closer and closer to him.
The look of a man in love.
When Gemma meets him, her tears match his. These two couldn’t be more perfect for each other. The way they support each other, love each other, encourage each other…God, it’s what I had with Simon.
My mind is all over the place as Gramps’s words continue.
“Now, you both have prepared your own vows—”
“Easy for the writer,” Gemma says, causing everyone to laugh.
Gramps smiles back at her. “Well then, why don’t we hear what he has to say?”
Blake grabs a sheet of paper from his pocket. “Gemma, I don’t know how I ever lived without you.”
His words to my sister have my tender heart shredding. Listening to him pour out his love for Gemma makes me ache inside. On the happiest day of her life, my own is in tatters.
I can’t help but search out Simon. His position has moved, now on the outskirts of the crowd. Almost like he’s trying to put as much space between the two of us as he can.
Standing here, on my sister’s happiest day, I can’t help but be brought back to my own wedding and divorce.
